Cuba seeks lower sentences for Mexican fishermen

Cuba seeks lower sentences for Mexican fishermen
13 Apr 2006 23:06:09 GMT
Source: Reuters
HAVANA, April 13 (Reuters) - Cuban prosecutors lowered from 25 to 10
years jail terms they are seeking for three Mexican fishermen charged
with smuggling people out of Cuba, Mexico's ambassador in Havana said on
Thursday.

Relatives of one of the men said they hoped the trio would be absolved
after attending their one-day trial on Wednesday in the southern coast
city of Cienfuegos. A decision could take up to a month.

Mexican Ambassador Jose Ignacio Pina said defense lawyers refuted
evidence that the fishermen were planning to pick up 17 people on Cuba's
south coast.

Cuba's Communist authorities are cracking down on the increasing number
of smugglers ferrying Cuban migrants to Mexico, where they try to cross
into the United States.

On April 5, the Cuban coast guard shot at three suspected migrant
smugglers, killing one and wounding a second, as they approached the
southwestern coast of the island.

The two surviving smugglers were arrested. Cuban officials said they
were Cuban-Americans operating a 40-foot (12-meter) Miami-registered
speedboat from the Mexican resort of Cancun.

Cuba last week denounced the existence of a smuggling ring financed by
anti-Castro exiles in Miami that was landing Cubans in Mexico's Yucatan
Peninsula purportedly in collusion with local immigration officials.

The three Mexican fishermen, who were arrested a year ago, insisted in
court they were on a fishing trip when their boat broke down and they
entered Cuban waters to fix the engine.

"The boat had room for five people and was carrying four tons of ice and
600 fishhooks. Where could you fit so many people?" Maria Elena Barco,
sister of one of the men, told reporters at the Mexican Embassy in Havana.

"There was no proof," said mother Lucia Rivero de Barco.

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